By Canadian Press

Ken Klee happily trades Costa Rican vacation for coaching pro women’s hockey team in Minnesota

Jan 10, 2024 | 9:36 AM

Ken Klee was supposed to be vacationing with his wife and friends in sunny Costa Rica, but instead found himself wandering a Target store stocking up on the basics in the middle of a Twin Cities’ winter.

As trades go, the former defenseman who was dealt twice during his 14-year NHL career couldn’t be happier. Klee landed in Minnesota shortly after Christmas to take over coaching the newly launched Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise after Charlie Burggraf stepped down for personal reasons a week before the start of the season.

“I’m getting some linens, paper towels and cups, and a coffee mug, and something to eat like a frozen pizza,” Klee said by phone, following his shopping trip on Tuesday.

“Yeah, my wife would be laughing if she could see me right now,” the 52-year-old said. “They’re all down there having a blast. And I’m getting to coach in front of almost 14,000 fans. So, I think both of us are pretty happy with it.”

Minnesota is off to a 2-0 start and currently boasts the six-team league’s largest fan base. Playing out of the PWHL’s largest facility, the NHL Wild’s Xcel Energy Center, the team shattered a women’s pro hockey attendance record by drawing 13,316 fans for its 3-0 home-opening win over Montreal on Saturday.

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The turnout broke the previous record set days earlier when 8,318 fans attended Ottawa’s home- and season-opening 3-2 overtime loss to Montreal.

Though Klee was accustomed to playing in front of much larger crowds, he appreciated the turnout’s significance.

“Just incredible,” he said. “I was so happy for them to get to experience that as a professional hockey player, and not just a limited few who may have played in U.S.-Canada games. It’s bigger than just the U.S.-Canada rivalry, which I think is great for women’s hockey.”

Klee is no stranger to women’s hockey. He coached the U.S. national women’s team to gold at the 2015 and ’16 world championships.

He eventually landed a job with the American Hockey League franchise in Syracuse, before heading home to Denver to help raise his two sons, who are now college-bound. Though he continued coaching youth hockey, the chance to return to the women’s game led Klee to interview for the six PWHL jobs last summer.

What struck Klee between being interviewed and landing in Minnesota was how far the PWHL had come in six months.

“There were so many moving parts, and so much changing on a day to day basis when I was in the interview process,” he recalled. “I was a little hesitant because every time I asked a question, they were like, `We’re working on that.’”

And now?

“I think it’s almost a miracle what they were able to do,” he said.

Smoothing Klee’s arrival in Minnesota was the familiarity he had with four national team players he previously coached in Kendall Coyne Schofield, Lee Stecklein, Kelly Pannek and goalie Nicole Hensley.

Another thing he’s come to appreciate is how competitive the games have been, including Minnesota’s season-opening 3-2 win at Boston. That’s a switch from the international level, where the U.S. and Canada have traditionally dominated.

“It’s more fun. It’s better hockey. Nobody gets up for a 13-1 game,” Klee said. “I wouldn’t be doing it if it was (lopsided), I can tell you that.”

GAME-WINNING GRACE

Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle is off to a fast start, entering Wednesday leading the league with four goals, two of them game-winners, and registering the PWHL’s first hat trick. The 24-year-old, who completed her college career at Minnesota last spring, had all the goals, including an empty-netter, in her team’s 3-0 win over Montreal.

“I don’t like to look at goals or whatever as a metric of performance, but I think it’s definitely one of my favorite hockey moments to date,” she said.

It’s even bigger, considering Zumwinkle feared she might miss the start of the season after hurting her shoulder during the PWHL’s evaluation camp in early December.

Her productive start follows a career setback after the 2022 Olympian missed the U.S. cut for the team that proceeded to win gold at the world championships in April. Zumwinkle is back up for consideration for this year’s worlds, being held in Utica, New York, in April.

“I definitely re-hit the drawing board,” she said. “Just taking the time to internally reflect and make myself a better player and person is something I really focused on, and I think will help me in the long run.”

ATTENDANCE FIGURES

Through five games, the PWHL said it has drawn 30,335 fans, including a season-opening sellout at Toronto’s 2,500-seat arena.

Boston drew a crowd of 4,012 for its home-opener at the 6,500-seat Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. New York drew the smallest crowd of 2,152, playing out of 10,000-seat Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Montreal has yet to play a home game, but is already approaching selling out all its games at the 4,000-seat Verdun Auditorium.

“The response has been just wonderful,” PWHL executive Stan Kasten said. “It’s been an emotional experience. I’ve seen so many parents and kids, so many smiles on our players’ faces. Our responsibility now is to keep those people smiling and delighted with our game and our league. We are only at the start of building a very special community.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

John Wawrow, The Associated Press